Guy Playing On Claw Machine Wins A 'Prize' He Hadn't Bargained For
"He was so cute!”
The other day, Rider Soares and his wife decided to take a day trip to the small town of Nioaque, not far from their home in Brazil. There, the couple stopped into a local family establishment to grab a bite and stretch their legs.
That's when Soares noticed they had a claw machine.
“Whenever I see these claw machines, I play,” Soares told The Dodo.
So, Soares inserted a few coins and squared up to the machine — setting his sights on a plush, stuffed elephant doll resting behind the glass. Soares' wife, meanwhile, casually recorded his efforts on her phone.
“I was lucky enough to get the elephant,” Soares said.
But that wasn’t the only “prize” he’d won:
Turns out, at that moment, an orange tabby cat had been dozing within the claw machine’s little prize-retrieval cubby. When the plush elephant came plopping down, it’d evidently roused him from his slumber.
Soares and his wife didn’t see him coming.
“We had a big laugh because it was so surreal,” Soares said. “I’m an animal lover, so when I saw him, I didn’t hesitate to pick him up. He was so cute!”
Soares was delighted, initially thinking that he could keep that living "prize" the claw machine had delivered to him. He soon came to discover, however, that the cat actually lives there as the business's resident pet.
"It's a shame I couldn't adopt him because he already had an owner," Soares said.
Nyandra Costa, who works at the business, Ypê Auto Posto, confirmed to The Dodo that the cat is well cared for by all the staff — and that he's been known to nap inside the claw machine from time to time: "His name is Garfield. He's very polite," she said.
In the end, Soares was only able to take home the stuffed elephant. But, to him, Garfield was the real prize regardless.
"He's the best thing I've ever received [playing these games]," Soares said. "Who could imagine getting a real plush animal in such a machine?"
